The Sayings of Roger

Here is a collection of various sayings and musings I have come up with in the course
of my ramblings. Updated now and again.

Sayings

Keep in mind that what humans have done to change Earth's climate over the last hundred years is really small potatoes compared to what plants have done over the last billion years.

When I put some version of "based on a true story" in the opening credits of my film, I will say "inspired by a true story that happened in an alternate dimension".

A woman who is aspiring to be a feminist I tolerate. A woman who is aspiring to be pretty I admire.

"Loose lips sink ships." has taken on another meaning.

What a pendulum swing! In the 1960's feminists were behind the Sexual Revolution. In the 2010's feminists are behind the New Puritanism.

A terrorist suicide bomber completes his mission and goes to heaven.

There he meets his twenty virgins, gets a big smile on his face, and rubs his hands in anticipation.

The lead virgin comes up and says, "Yes, we are your twenty virgins... AND WE ARE STAYING THAT WAY."

"Slower! You can go slower!" what I mutter when I'm frustrated with the traffic in front of me.

One of the big differences between book reading and movie watching is how important familiarity is. It is real important in movie watching.

Democracy is a great form of government, but only when there is a specific adjective in front of it: informed democracy.

For democracy to function well, it requires informed citizens. For free markets to function well, it requires informed customers.

Some people like to pay more and get something quickly, some people like to wait and pay less. The world is full of both these kinds of people.

One of the constant challenges for every civilization is learning how to use well the technical and social tools available to it.

It has been a curiosity to me why the Plants Rights movements have not taken off the way the Animal Rights movements have.

Betrayal is profitable when it brings big short-term benefits.
Cooperation is profitable when it brings steady long-term benefits.

Never believe what Group A leaders and enthusiasts are saying about Group B. The people of Group B are thinking about entirely different things than what the Group A people are saying about them.

Entering, and exiting, a job should be more like getting groceries and less like getting married. Keep it simple and easy.

Success-after-success is sure hard to achieve, but failure-after-failure is sure hard to endure.

It's no fun tackling a tough steak with a dull knife.

A child who is never hurt and never surprised is learning only half of life's lessons, and using only half of his or her child learning skills.

The Earth's climate is not some kind of delicate, exciting high wire act. It's the grumpy old man taking a nap on the couch.

We must not allow the tree of liberty to be choked out by the weed of security.

Dark conspiracy is enabled by people with good intentions who don't check their work.

It is really sad that good intentions aren't sufficient to produce good results.

Blind Spot solutions: They feel good, but they aren't solving.

The strange thing about the end of the world is how regularly we celebrate it.

I've seen many idiot drivers, but never a genius driver.

Just like imagination, good intentions have no limit. Reality, on the other hand, has harsh limits.

Grandpa Roger, scratching his head at all the protective gear and rituals children live with these days, "I'm sure glad I got my kids raised before life was so dangerous for them!"

One problem with stereotypes: No one who fits one thinks they are a part of it.

One of the keys to growing employment in America again: If you think, "That job is terrible." Don't follow that with the thought, "If I think it's terrible, no one should be able to do that job. It should not be allowed to exist."

If you don't want someone doing a particular commercial activity in your community don't pay them to do it.

Social Justice is a good intention. Economic growth is a good result. I'm much happier with good results than good intentions.

With any new technology concept the destructive form is always easier, cheaper, simpler and quicker to make than the constructive form.

I don't see evil people in the world, I see people driven the wrong way by what they deeply believe is right.

In the world of the economy, competition is like evolution and central planning is like Intelligent Design.

Since terrorism is advertising, the most effective way to fight terrorism is not to buy the product. Do that by doing your business as usual.

Begging is a form of entertainment, perhaps the earliest form of it.

Prescience makes perfect.

To measure material wealth, look at both what people have and how well they are maintaining it.

Mother Nature says, "Living is always a privilege, never a right."

A person is a winner in life when they do two things: spread their genes and spread their ideas.

It was a thankless job. And, in the end, no one thanked him for doing it.

Some people want to live in a Workers' Paradise. I prefer living in a Customers' Paradise.

When your climate science becomes religion, your climate cures will be as effective as sacrificing goats was in Ancient Rome: Some people will sleep better at nights, but the effect on saving the world will be random.

Efficiency is Green, effectiveness is even Greener.

An economic recession is a time for dream changing for businesses and communities.

The relation between Newton's work and Einstein's work:
Newton described the real world well, Einstein described it better.

Americans need to be diligent about protecting enfranchisement,
not borders.

The essence of terrorism is violence for TV new's sake.

Sometimes it feels like men and women are two different species sharing the same
gene pool.

Standards makers are standards breakers. Think of who controls how a language is spoken.

If you can't do, teach. If you can't teach, do TV news.

Q: Why can humans in their late teens and early twenties
work all day and party all night, while older adults and children scratch
their heads at where all that endurance comes from?

A: It's metabolism. Children and young adults have a metabolism
set to full throttle, but children are using a big chunk of that to grow.
Young adults are finished growing, and their metabolism hasn't slowed down
to adult levels yet.

One of the big changes advancing civilization brings to a community is widening
the scope of who its members cooperate with.

Men are from Mars, women are from Venus, and teachers are from Planet Pluto.

It's easier to change a plan than make one. (So, before you start a project,
make a plan, even a bad one.)

Don't invoke conspiracy when simple incompetence can explain what happens.

Technology can give back what it takes away [in ecological and cultural
damage], but poverty plays for keeps.

Prosperity pays for ecology.

Favorites

I've seen many idiot drivers, but never a genius driver.

Mother Nature says, "Living is always a privilege, never a right."

Efficiency is Green, effectiveness is even Greener.

Men are from Mars, women are from Venus, and teachers are from Planet Pluto.

Some people want to live in a Workers' Paradise. I prefer living in a Customers' Paradise.

It is no fun tackling a tough steak with a dull knife.

Americans need to be diligent about protecting enfranchisement,
not borders.

Men and women are two different species sharing the same
gene pool.

Roger's Cosmology Riddle (my riddle of year 2000)

Question:

If "light matter" is the matter in the universe that is affected
by both gravity and light. And if "dark matter" is the matter in the
universe that is affected by gravity but not light. What do you call matter
in the universe that is not affected by gravity or light?

Answer: Don't Matter

You call it "don't matter" because whatever it is, it don't matter.
If something in our universe affects neither light nor gravity, it makes absolutely
no difference to what happens in the observable part of our universe.

Roger's Joke of the [fill in the blank]

How do you insult a shape changer?

Start singing, "I love you just the way you are."

Roger's Joke of May 2016

Lucifer walks into a salon. There are shrieks as the hairdressers rush to the back of the salon and cower in terror. Jesus comes out of the break room and sizes up the situation.
He takes a heroic stance, pulls out scissors and comb, and says...

"Fear not. I will give the devil his 'do."

Roger's Philosophic Nuggets

Philosophy class insight: The quickest and easiest way to solve the quandary caused by declaring God to be omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent, and then looking at the result that is our real world, is to change the "omnibenevolent" part to "unfathomable". This is quite possible. We humans don't understand our universe creator any better than Mickey Mouse understands Walt Disney.

Philosophy class insight: There is a lot of talk about the paradox of so much evil being in a world created by an omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent God. How did it all get in the world, and why?

Here is an insight I came up with as I pondered this problem: An answer:

Evil creates good.

To put it another way:

Evil is the soil in which the flowers of good grow.

I don't believe in this, but is sure makes for a wonderful image.

Said following the Trump win in November 2016

Q: Why do we still have elections?
A: Because the results are still surprising.

A slogan for those supporting California seceding from The Union after Trump's surprising win in 2016: "The Bear Republic can't bear The Republic!"

My thoughts on Trump getting elected one year later:

o The Republicans couldn't come up with anyone better?
o The Democrats couldn't come up with anyone better?

There is a difference between legality and morality. But Americans are rarely taught that difference in school, so we support legislating morality and that is expensive because it doesn't work well.

Collectivism is alive and thriving in the contemporary public school environment.

One sign of an over-regulated industry: When the bill you get for services rendered is an arm-long itemized list.

If you think it's hard to know what a woman will be like as your wife, think
how hard it is to know what a woman will be like as your ex-wife.

If ordinary people look like they are doing strange things to you, you haven't observed them closely enough to see the logic underlying their actions.

Q: How high should the fence around a house be?

A: Three feet high. People who respect fences will respect it, but can get
over it if they see a need to help inside. People who don't respect fences will
climb the fence if it's three, six or nine feet high.

Statement: "The Bible is not a history book or a science book,
it is a book of moral instruction."

Roger's Thought: A book of moral instruction based on bad science and
bad history. Hmm... It's a good thing it's divinely inspired!